Whatever Happened to Janie? - Hardcover

Cooney, Caroline B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385310358 ISBN 13: 9780385310352

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1993

Synopsis

No one ever paid attention to the faces of missing children on milk cartons. But as Janie  Johnson glanced at the face of the little girl who had been taken twelve years ago, she recognized that little girl--it was herself.

The mystery of the kidnapping is unraveled, but the nightmare is not over. The Spring family wants justice, but who is to blame? It's difficult to figure out what's best for everyone.

Janie Johnson or Jennie Spring? There's enough love for everyone, but how can the two separate families live happily ever after?

About this title

About the Author:

Caroline B. Cooney is the author of Goddess of Yesterday (an ALA Notable Children’s Book); The Ransom of Mercy Carter; and The Face on the Milk Carton (an IRA–CBC Children’s Choice). She lives in Westbrook, CT.
From the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly:

Readers left on the edge of their seats at the conclusion of The Face on the Milk Carton will race to get their hands on this equally gripping sequel. Janie is an illegally adopted child who discovered the existence of her natural parents 12 years after her kidnapping. As this phase of the saga begins, Janie Johnson (nee Jennie Spring) has contacted her real mother and father, who have lost no time in reclaiming her. Trying to do the right thing, the 15-year-old agrees to leave her much-loved adoptive parents' home in a small Connecticut town and move to the Springs' crowded New Jersey split-level. The Springs' expectations prove to be too great for homesick Janie, who cannot stop thinking about the pain her adoptive parents are suffering and feels guilty whenever she begings to be the slightest bit happy in her new household. Janie's struggle to sort out who she is and where she belongs turns out to be profoundly upsetting not only for herself, but also for both sets of parents and her natural older sister and three brothers. Cooney builds a strong case for the rights of adoptive parents while painting a sympathetic portrait of birth parents who have given up a child, unwillingly or otherwise. The power and nature of love is wrenchingly illustrated throughout this provocative novel, which expresses multiple points of view with remarkable understanding. However strange the events of this book, the emotions of its characters remain excruciatingly real. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0385310358
• ISBN 13: 9780385310352
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208